To lol at the feminism threads....

[Hannah4banana]

Seriously are people constantly looking out for a way to be offended first world problems!

There's not really much I can add to this thread, as several better informed posters have pretty much said it all for me.

All I can do is offer my own experiences as a 50 something woman who grew up in the 60s and 70s. As a female I was taught to accept and minimise the sexism and mysoginy that myself and other females experienced on a daily basis. I was taught by my own mother that women needed men and that male opinions took precedence. She also believed that education was wasted on women, and had no interest in my education even though my teachers told her time and time again that I was very clever and above average in all my subjects.

I became a wife and mother at 17 years old as I believed that was the only option open to me. When I had my daughters I decided that I'd be damned rather than make their world and their options fit into the same tiny and suffocating box that mine had to.

My own understanding of feminism, is that it's ultimately about choice. Whether you want to work, stay at home, climb Mount Everest or become a politician, as long as you're happy doing it then you should be allowed to at least try.

I know that some of the gripes on the feminism boards do appear trivial and trite, but they are just the thin end of the wedge really. It starts when we're children but those gender stereotypes regarding card colours become a metaphor for the way that we as women are then perceived as adults. So yes, YABU.

Fwiw I believe that some behaviours are linked with sex and hormones (e.g. Being more aggressive in men).
But that the difference between men and women is so small compare to the differences in the groups themselves (is in the men no in the women group) that they cannot be taken as a reason good enough to say that one group can do XX but the other can't.

On the contrary, there are plenty of different POV and until we stop talking about FWR as if they had just one voice, there is no way yu can decide if what feminists say is logical or not

Very well but why are the works of Hoff Summer and Paglia dismissed but Dworkin and Greer are taken as gospel?

Agerbilatemycardigan

Perfectly put. And thank you for raising your children differently. It's only when the attitudes that we teach our DC spread out into wider society that we eventually see real change.

However, in agreeing that there is a biological basis of gendered behaviour (albeit one inseparable from social conditioning), you are disagreeing with 95% of the posters in FWR.

I tire of the amount of times posters have said 'gender is a social construct' as if this is not even debatable.

I don't think this is an accurate representation of FWR at all. There is a biological basis of some differences between men and women - I've never heard a feminist deny this. what we debate is to what extent this is true, immutable, and a product of genes, and to what extent gendered behaviour grows around sexed differences. For example, women give birth. To what extent does this then mean that it's inevitable that women must be primary caregivers for all young children? Or another one: women are physically generally smaller than men. To what extent does this mean that women's sport is "inferior"?

Gender is a social construct, but it's built on the fact of our sexual dimorphism. It's inextricable.

I find a number of boards on MN either boring or irrelevant to me, OP. Oddly enough I don't feel the need to say so. Your need to put down the Feminist threads says more about you than it does about them. YABU.

Sadly, due to a number of reasons, a lot of women take a pride in making a big song and dance about not being like those horrible man-hating feminists. Being one of the cool girls who hate feminism is a common tactic among teenagers who want to gain male approval and I guess some people never grow out of it.

Just to weigh in, of course biological characteristics differentiate the sexes. Feminists are divided however over the question of whether identity is to any extent immutably gendered. Liberal feminists might argue that are basic differences, while someone like Dworkin would argue that gender identity is a complete social construct.

Thank you Lessthan this is something that I feel really strongly about and have only recently found my voice about this subject. I always felt it though, and brought my daughters up accordingly. My mother is in her 80s now and couldn't be prouder of all that her granddaughters have achieved. She's also admitted that she was wrong.

And then there's the feminist bechdale test. Can't we just enjoy the damn film

Yeah. Who needs to see women having conversations with each other that aren't about men?

miss - the links?

"Son, I've told you, boys don't kiss" (dad to a 5yo boy when he picked him up from school at the end of the day and his son went to kiss him)

That made me want to cry

The only time I ever had a problem with my dd's nursery was when one of the workers told me that she had grabbed a doll off a boy and the worker had let her because "boys don't play with dolls", ggrrr

"Sadly, due to a number of reasons, a lot of women take a pride in making a big song and dance about not being like those horrible man-hating feminists."

Oh nicely said Prawn! I was one of those cool girls until I just couldn't lie to myself anymore.

I've rolled my eyes at it billions of times. I've seen the odd post I agree with but some of it's shocking

I've seen the odd post I agree with but some of it's shocking

Such as. People say these things but rarely give examples

Still waiting for those links with the bullying...and the support for sex tourism...and whatever other wild claims are being attributed to FWR.

I too, was a cool girl in my day. Then I caught a bad dose of feminism

I agree, Bauble. I find rape, FGM and the potential rolling back of women's rights worldwide absolutely shocking too. That was what you meant, wasn't it?

The historic threads in FWR. you'll find examples if you go far enough back

Such as. People say these things but rarely give examples

I don't want or need to give examples. It's my opinion and I don't really need to push it in people's faces or debate it.

So could you dig one out and link to it please Miss?

"The historic threads in FWR. you'll find examples if you go far enough back"

I wouldn't know what to look for, Miss. can you link to the one you've been looking at?

Blah blah blah. This is just silly.

You need to link miss. No one has time to trawl through every feminism thread until whenever "historic" is to find bullying.
There isn't any, anyway. Disagreement is not bullying.

It's my opinion and I don't really need to push it in people's faces or debate it

Expressing opinions without evidence?

Welcome to post truth internet.

bauble-not even one little example of something shocking? Fair enough.

"What is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

They are there. I have seen them

They are there. I have seen them

So would you agree that most of the board is ok but think there are a few examples that are shocking?

Or is it the whole board? In which case, there must be some threads now you can link to?